The court heard the driver told Moody he had picked the wrong bus but then the thug rammed a stick into the partition.

“He said ‘Give me the money, I will f***ing kill you’,” Ms Dowling told the court. She then said Mr Walker began to fear he was serious and stood to defend himself and tried to grab the stick. At this point the court heard Moody ran off.

The first man who had asked the driver for help then put up his hands and told Mr Walker the incident had nothing to do with him.

In a victim statement the driver said the incident had caused him to be in fear of being seriously harmed during his job.

Ms Dowling said Moody had a lengthy record and added: “He appears to have been the subject of a supervision order at the time of this offence.”

In mitigation, the court heard Moody’s partner had recently given birth to twins which was described as the “long-awaited positive in his life” and he was “absolutely devastated” to be in custody following the impulsive act.